1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an input device for zooming and shutter releasing for a camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
A recently used camera has a structure including a rotary member. The rotary member is provided rotatably at the periphery of a shutter release button and has a zoom lever. Hence, a shutter-releasing operation and a zooming operation can be easily performed with slight movement of a finger.
A shutter-releasing switch and a zooming switch are provided in a cameral body at positions close to one another.
In the above-described camera structure of related art, both the shutter-releasing switch and the zooming switch are mechanical switches. This may disturb reduction in size of the camera.
The technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-274718 (hereinafter, referred to as document '718) includes a zooming switch having a plurality of printed contact pieces formed on a substrate and a brush-like contact piece coupled to a zoom lever. When the zoom lever is rotated, the sliding position of the brush-like contact piece against the printed contact pieces is changed. The change in sliding position results in zooming toward a wide-angle end (W), a neutral position, and a telephoto end (T).
Unfortunately, since the technique disclosed in the document '718 includes the zooming switch having the sliding-switch structure, long printed contact pieces have to be provided on the substrate by taking into account the rotation range of the zoom lever and the brush length of the brush-like contact piece. It is difficult to sufficiently meet reduction in size of a camera.
Also, since the technique disclosed in the document '718 includes the zooming switch having the sliding switch structure, such a structure tends to be subjected to wear, and it is difficult to increase the life of the switch.
Further, the technique disclosed in the document '718 has difficulty in increase in the number of steps for zooming. Hence, the technique cannot properly respond to high-magnification zooming demanded recently. For example, a volume switch may be provided to achieve a multistep switch. However, it is difficult to reduce the size of an input device.